BrahMos missile exports a challenging proposition

The BrahMos missile is one of the testimonies of burgeoning partnership between India and Russia. Source: Boris Egorov / RIR

Despite its high promise, India and Russia have to navigate through various complexities in making the BrahMos missile a profitable business.

With the
visit of Vietnamese Prime Minister to India in the last week of October, the
issue of BrahMos missile export has surfaced again. Built under joint
cooperation of India and Russia, the supersonic cruise missile has become quite
popular in third countries. Due its cost effectiveness and deterrence capacity,
the missile has been much sought after by countries as far as Latin America and
as close as South East Asia.

Last month
the head of BrahMos Corporation, Sudhir Mishra, stated that “If any country
approaches us we will look into it on a case by case basis. BrahMos Aerospace
has the production capacity, game plan and skilled labour to supply. I would
like to state that we are ready and waiting.” Mishra also indicated that there is already
a list of friendly countries to which the missile can be exported and stated
that “It (the export) can happen anytime soon as the new government has made
its intent to export weapons clear.” But he made it clear that it is up to the
governments of India (along with Russia) to decide when to market the missile
in third countries. India’s eagerness to export homemade items has been more
pronounced after the new government came to power in Delhi in May. Prime
Minister, Narendra Modi has given the call to Indian entrepreneurs ‘make in
India’ and also pitched for export of defence items to friendly countries.

The BrahMos
missile is one of the testimonies of burgeoning partnership between India and
Russia. Started in 2004, BrahMos (combination of Brahmaputra and Moskva) is one
the unique cases of joint defence design and production between the two
countries. Hence, the decision to export the missile has to be by the
leaderships of both the countries. A report suggests that till the last year
Russia was hesitant to export the missile to third countries, but currently
Russia has expressed interest in its export. Countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, South
Africa, Egypt, Oman, and Brunei, Venezuela have expressed interested in the
missile. Three submarine manufacturers – Amur of Russia, Howaldtswerke-Deutsche
Werft (HDW) of Germany and Navantia of Spain –
have contacted the BrahMos Corporation for installing BrahMos on the new
Project- 75I submarines should they bag the contract. Similarly, Malaysia had expressed interest to
install BrahMos on Su-30MKM fighters that it received from Russia in 2009. In a
sense, BrahMos has become star defense equipment among many developing
countries to protect their maritime border or to project their maritime power
in an insecure region.

Vietnam has
since long expressed keen interest in the missile. Vietnamese Prime Minister
during the recent visit pitched for the export of the missile to his
country. Reportedly while the UPA
government was hesitant to export the missile to Vietnam, the new government is
positively inclined to export it to the South East Asian country. Prime
Minister Modi during his meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Tan
Dung, emphasized that “Our defence cooperation with Vietnam is among our most
important ones. India remains committed to the modernization of Vietnam's
defence and security forces.” There are plans of an Indian launch of Vietnamese
satellites and Indian investment in oil fields in dispute South China Sea
waters. There are also talks about India building a nuclear power plant in
Vietnam.

Despite the
flurry of demands and expression of intents, the missile has not actually been
delivered to any third country. In the case of Vietnam, China has expressed its
reservations against India’s policies to supply weapons. In the South China
Sea, China and Vietnam are locked in a conflict over the maritime boundaries.
India and China have boundary differences too.

Russia,
which enjoys good relationship with India and China, may not be interested in
offsetting the prevalent balance of relations by exporting the missile to the
countries not friendly to China. In that case, Russia will have a difficult
role to craft equilibrium in its relations with India and China, while
simultaneously facilitating the export of the missile that can be economically
profitable to it and India. Russia has good economic relations with China, and
this year both the countries signed a deal worth $200 billion, dubbed ‘deal of
the century’. China (and also India) has supported Russia’s position on the
Ukrainian conflict. Hence, Russia which has no dispute with China may not be
interested in hurting its ally’s interests in the South China Sea. At the same
time, it may not be interested to forego the profit from selling the defence
items including the BrahMos missile. Russia is a major defence equipments
suppliers and it has interested customers in South East Asia. It has already
supplied a Kilo-class submarine to Vietnam and Sukhoi fighters to
Malaysia.

India,
Russia and China, however, have larger common interests. They have used common
platforms like RIC, BRICS and G20 to promote those interests. Selling the BrahMos
missile, particularly to the countries with which China has geostrategic
differences will, hence, be a complicated affair.

India is
not a member of Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), the voluntary group
that prevents the proliferation of missile and unmanned aerial vehicle
technology. This is another obstacle particularly on part of India in exporting
the missile to Vietnam or any other country. A line of suggestion is India can
finalize the details of export agreements with friendly countries while
simultaneously formalizing membership of MTCR. Despite its high promise, India
and Russia have to navigate through various complexities in making the BrahMos
missile a profitable business.